I have to disagree with the comments so far. I do not consider this a very good question.

The processing order as described in the correct answer is the logical order of evaluation. What order a Relational Database Management System uses internally is completely implementation dependant; any internal processing order is valid as long as the results are the same as when the logical processing order had been used. This is where the query optimizer comes in - it considers countless various processing orders and access methods to find the one with the lowest estimated cost.

I would have liked the question (a lot!) if the question had asked for the logical processing order. But the question specificallly asked aboout the sequence internally used, and that threw me off completely. I did answer correctly, but only because, after reading the answer options, I was able to work out what the intention of the question was.

Thanks for taking the effort to submit a question, Tom. I know how much work goes into it, and I appreciate the effort. I hope my harsh comments won't keep you from submitting more questions.